I did like this movie. It wasn’t mind-blowing to me, but I do find the concept of it pretty fun. The movie is set in two versions of London: Front London (the London that appears in our world) and Reverse London (the London full of magic, witches, and dragons). The world of “Burn the Witch” gives me many Harry Potter vibes, which I am not at all opposed to seeing. The whole movie sort of feels like a nod towards that franchise. However, it doesn’t appear to be as fleshed out as Harry Potter. There is still a lot left to the imagination on how magic in this universe works, what the different organizations in the world of Reverse London are, and how it interacts with Front London. It's not even clear on who the villains are. Are they the dragons themselves, or are they the shady council people trying to capture Balgo? Who’s to say?! But perhaps that’s the point of the movie-it’s meant to throw you, the viewer, into this fantastical world of dark dragons and spunky witches. You’re meant to experience the world on a joyride, not analyze it.
Story: The story was fine. Not something that blew me away, but it also didn’t bore me half to death. As I stated above, there are still plenty of questions about how the world of this movie works that are left unanswered. That’s a bit frustrating, but again maybe that was international. The story itself is also quite fast-paced. It’s as if the movie cobbled together three episodes from the middle of an anime and tried to condense it into an hour-long window. It’s not so fast-paced that the viewer is confused about what is happening, but it still leaves a lot to be desired.
The story's main conflict appears to be whether or not Dragon Clads should be protected or killed. That’s all fine and good conflict...but as the movie progresses, it appears the problem is less with the Dragon Clads and more with the dragons themselves? The Dragon Clads are sort of just...there. Attracting dragons, I guess, but the movie never really goes into a lot of depth on just how dangerous a Dragon Clad could be...especially since Balgo and Macy aren’t dangerous characters. You could call Macy unhinged, but she doesn’t have malicious intent.
Burn the Witch’s story isn’t all bad, though. I like all of the references to fairy tales and seeing how Ninny thinks they’re all a load of bull. Although the movie never really goes into detail about why Ninny thinks this way either. The fights scenes and learning about the lore of the dragons and world itself are quite fun.
That sentence could sum up the story, I suppose. Fun, but it doesn’t appear that the movie will go into more depth than that.
Rating: 3/5
Characters: The characters were ok. Not much to write home about. We have Ninny, who lives a dual life as a celebrity in Front London and a witch in Reverse London. She hates fairy tales, is spunky, wants recognition for defeating dragons...and that’s her character. The majority of characters are fairly surface-level without going into a lot of depth about them. Noel is the quiet side-kick, Balgo is the goofy but lovable Dragon Clad, Bangnyfe is the cool but intense wizard who wants to kill Balgo for his own gain, and Macy is a girl who’s in love with Ninny and is clueless in a magical world.
I blame the movie's running time for not giving the audience a chance to get to know the characters more. Maybe they appear surface-level now, but a proper series could expand on their potential for being great and memorable characters.
The character designs aren’t too bad, though. In fact, they’re quite good! Bangnyfe looks the coolest out of everyone, in my personal opinion, haha.
Rating: 2/5
Animation: The animation was really, really good! Probably the best part of the whole movie, if I’m quite honest. It was fluid and vivid, and the action scenes flowed splendidly. There wasn’t anything done that was too experimental. It was just a good shonen animation. There was some CGI animation that was implemented too. I always get nervous seeing CGI animation in anime, but this honestly didn’t bother me much. In fact, it was well-executed for once! If there were animation mistakes or awkward stills, I didn’t really see them myself.
Rating: 4/5
Voice Acting: Again, also very good. All of the voice actors conveyed their character’s personalities well and were all pleasant to listen to. I absolutely adored Balgo’s VA. He did such a good job striking a balance between “awkward” and “adorable” in his performance. It’s such a shame that Balgo’s character writing was just so...well, bad.
Rating: 5/5
Music: I’m a bit reluctant to write about music since I don’t tend to pay attention to it much. Unless it’s something really unique, but the music for Burn the Witch was fine-nothing particularly stood out, but it did do its job carrying the scenes along.
Rating: 2/5
Closing Thoughts: While there are still many questions left unanswered about the movie's world, I would recommend giving this a watch. In my personal opinion, I would like to see this fleshed out a bit more as a regular anime series than as a movie. If there ever will be a show, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that. But for now, check this out if you’re interested and scratch that itch for Harry Potter in an anime world.
Final Rating: 6/10
